by Tiya Rayne
“I’m only doing this to keep you safe. When it’s done, I’m coming back to you and nothing else will take you away.”
I walk out of her room, away from everything I ever wanted—with a one-track mind—kill Rasheed and get back to Malia no matter what it takes.
Chapter 42
Did You Get It
Lucien
* * *
Two weeks into my separation from Malia and I have barely slept or eaten. I’ve been in my cave since I walked out of that hospital. I have traced every thread I could find of Rasheed.
Seth has been unusually quiet. I have barely seen him since our conversation. I know he’s still pissed, but I don’t have time to baby him.
I again go through the files I found on Rasheed. Admittedly it isn’t a lot. He doesn’t appear in any database until he is twenty-two years old. Only a year before the first Church member who went after him. That little information has been hammering at me for weeks.
My phone goes off, the noise going throughout the speakers of the house.
“Who is it?” As if the call summoned him from thin air, Seth appears.
“It’s not her,” I say, even though for a split second I think it’s Malia too. However, reality comes crashing back down on me and I remember I let her go.
Clicking the button to allow the speakers to connect to the call, I say, “Hello.”
“You’ve been really searching for me, haven’t you?”
Seth and I both freeze.
“Rasheed,” I say his name out loud and it breaks the spell I’m in. I immediately connect the call to my computer and start tracking his location.
“You are either very bold or very dumb,” Seth taunts, knowing what we need to do. We need to keep him on the line.
He chuckles on the other end, but I don’t pay attention to it as I stare at the screen watching the little loading circle turn as it tries to narrow down his location.
“The Twin is there as well. Even better. Have you found anything else interesting about me after digging through my files?”
“Keep going,” I whisper low to Seth.
“Your files are pretty weak. Why don’t you tell me what you want me to know?”
Again, Rasheed chuckles. I keep my eyes glued to the screen. The satellite I’m using to track this call shows me what I assumed is true, Rasheed is in Africa.
“It should show you I’m not your enemy.”
“So you keep saying. If you aren’t, prove it. Meet me somewhere,” Seth says, leaning closer to the phone.
“Good one, but I’ll pass.” Rasheed does something that causes the phone to make a rustling sound.
“You still there?” I ask as I watch the satellite narrow his location down even more. He’s somewhere near the coastal boarders. Near Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon.
“Of course. I still think you should join my team. I could open your eyes to things. We could be real friends.”
“There is no chance in hell we can be friends now,” Seth says. “You sealed your fate when you came after my brother’s girl. You forfeited your life the moment you hurt her.”
The phone goes silent again. The only reason I know he hasn’t hung up is because the satellite has narrowed the search down even more. It looks as if he’s closer to Cameroon, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo. It’s still too far off to give me an actual location.
“Is she all right?”
Both Seth and I pause. His tone and his question cause me to look away from the screen to the phone. It isn’t that he stopped to ask the question, but he actually sounded as if he’s worried.
“Don’t act like you give a damn now,” Seth seethes.
A long drawn out sigh comes through the phone. “You should’ve paid more attention to my magic trick.”
“Fuck your magic trick. I have one of my own. Instead of a lighter, I can make my Bowie disappear in your asshole.”
I hit a few buttons on my keyboard, hoping to speed up the process of the tracking. The map on the computer screen only narrows down slightly. It looks as if he’s definitely in Cameroon.
“I can’t wait to see your face when you realize who your real enemy is.”
After those words the phone goes dead.
“Fuck,” Seth roars. “Did you get it?”
I focus back on the screen. “No, but that’s okay. I’m close enough,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
Even knowing he’s in Cameroon is still going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. I pick up my phone to disconnect it from the computer.
“No more bullshitting, Luc. We need to nail this motherfucker once and for all.”
“You don’t think I know I that.” I toss my phone back down on the desk.
“You’re the one pussy footing around like you can live without her.”
I close my eyes and count to ten. He has no idea how much being away from Malia is killing me. I refuse to pull up her cameras on my phone.
I know if I see her, I’ll lose focus and go to her. I can’t do that, not this close to the finish line.
“I’m doing everything I can.”
“You better,” he says before turning to leave.
“Hey,” I call out to him before he goes. “What do you think he meant by our real enemy?”
Something about the things Takar said don’t sit right with me. Like the holes I found in his files.
“I think, I don’t give a shit,” Seth says. “Let’s finish this asshole so you can get Lia back.”
Chapter 43
I’m Done Talking
Lucien
* * *
I close my eyes and breathe. Her face comes into view. The vision of the last time I saw her plays back in my head and that ache starts again.
All the sacrifices have finally paid off. The time has come to put this menu to rest. Exactly five weeks after I walked out of her hospital room, I find myself in Cameroon.
Yaounde to be exact. After Rasheed’s call I worked my ass off to use the satellite to narrow down his location. I could have waited until Takar came back to New York, but I’m tired of waiting. I brought this fight to him.
It’s risky to be on his territory. Despite his files portraying him as a tyrant and a man who lays waste to anyone who gets in his way, the people in his home country adore him. No one will even talk to you if you mention his name. Doesn’t really fit with the title tyrant or madman that his file labels him as.
Takar owns a sprawling mansion with seven bedrooms and twelve baths. It took everything I had, working around the clock, to find this place, but I found it.
“We are not here to make a show,” I remind Seth. “I’m not trying to rack up body counts. I want Takar dead. That’s it.”
“On this little brother, we agree.” He sticks his favorite bowie back into its holster. “The sooner we kill Takar, the sooner we get back to our girl.” I don’t take offense to him calling Malia our girl. I know Seth sees her as family, even if he still desires her, he would never come between us.
And there is definitely still an us. My last words to her remain true, I’m going back for her. And I don’t care who comes after me next.
I slip into the crawl space underneath the mansion. Using a handheld battery-operated saw, I cut a small enough hole in the floor of the back bathroom for us to fit through. My two weeks of drone surveillance gave me a perfect layout of the home.
This bathroom is the furthest from the populated area of the house. This is our best entrance. Less people to hear the noise.
I slide the square cut out aside and climb up through the hole. My brother right along with me. We silently creep out of the bathroom, and like I knew they would be, the halls are vacant on this side. I pull out my phone and check my app one last time. Rasheed went into his bedroom two hours ago and has yet to come back out.
Our all black attire keeps us covered as we stick to the walls and stay in the shadows avoiding high traffic areas. Takar wasn’t lying about keeping peopl
e with him. We specifically waited until we knew everyone would be in bed. Only a few guards remain up and on alert.
We bypass most, but I know in order to get where we need to go, we have to face off with some. We come up behind the first guard we’ll have to cross. Seth covers his mouth so he can’t scream and slits his throat with his bowie.
We pull him out of sight, then head down the hallway to Takar’s room. Two other guards stand between us and the room. Seth tosses his knife into the chest of the man furthest from us, while I use my elbow to repeatedly bash in the face of the man in front of me.
I do it so many times, Seth has to stop me.
“Hey, he’s out,” he says, getting my attention.
I drop the man, allowing his unconscious body to fall to the floor. Seth pulls out a smaller blade from his boot and shoves it into the side of the neck of the guard at my feet.
“I thought we weren’t running up body counts,” I say.
Seth shrugs. “He might’ve woken up and ran.” He tucks the knife back in his boot after cleaning it off.
We head to Takar’s room, stopping at the other guard with the knife lodged in his chest. Seth reaches down and drives the blade deeper before yanking it out and wiping it on the man’s shirt.
We push open the door and find Takar lying peacefully in his bed. After all we did to get here, it’s hard to believe we are finally in this spot.
“How should we handle this—”
My whisper is cut off when Seth pulls out a gun and fires it into the covered body lying in the bed. He fires three more times to make sure he hit his mark. My brother has never been the one to go for the quick kill. He prefers bloody, long drawn out deaths. For him to end it like this has me baffled.
“That was quick,” I say.
“I’m done talking. I didn’t want to hear shit else he had to say. Now let’s get the fuck out of here and go get your girl.”
I won’t argue with that.
Chapter 44
Nothing left to Give
Lucien
* * *
The private charter plane arrived back in New York around eight. My body understands I have just traveled a few different time zones in under twelve hours, but I don’t care how tired I am, I was going to see her. Five weeks is a long time.
Her shop is closed but I know she’s here because, I pulled up the cameras on my phone on my way back to the States. I slip inside using the extra key I made and head to her back office. When I step into the room, she’s going over paperwork, too focused to look up and see me.
“Hey, Beautiful.” She snaps her head up and smiles so brightly, but then it falls.
“What are you doing here, Lucien?”
I walk further into the room. “You know why I’m here. I told you I was coming back.”
She leans back in her chair and narrows her eyes. “So that’s how easy it is? You decide you’re going to call it off and then when you’re ready, you come back? And I’m supposed to go along with it?”
“You know why I had to leave.”
“No, I don’t. I know you gave me some bullshit reason about it not being safe and then you disappeared for five weeks.”
“I had no other choice.”
She slams her fist down on the desk. “No, you had a choice. You chose to leave me.”
I storm up to her desk, leaning over it. “If you think I made that decision lightly, you’re out of your mind. You were lying in a hospital because of me.” My voice raises and I try to correct myself by closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
“I tore my heart out of my chest and left it at the foot of that hospital bed with you. Walking out of that room, hearing you cry, broke me. The only thing that kept me going was knowing the man who hurt you was still out there. And as long as he walked this earth you weren’t safe.”
The office is quiet, only the sound of our breathing is heard.
“Is he dead?” she asks the question softly.
I sigh, standing up straight. “Yes.”
Again, silence circles us. I don’t press her or make any requests. I owe her that much.
“What happens the next time one of your jobs gets too close? Am I supposed to play this yoyo game with you? What if next time I’m not lucky or it isn’t me who gets hurt, but it’s Emory. It isn’t just me this job effects.”
“You’re absolutely right. You have every reason to want to walk away from me and some reasons you don’t even know. My job is dangerous and I can’t guarantee it will ever be safe.
“I know all the reasons I should let you go, but I can’t. So if you want me out of your life, you have to make the decision because I’m not strong enough.”
I lay it all at her feet. Allowing her the opportunity to make me leave. I lost the ability to make that choice the day I figured out what Angel hid from me.
Malia watches me for a long moment, then she turns away, the action cuts me deep. I won’t lie to her. If she tells me to leave and never come back I will, but I know it may actually kill me.
“You can go,” she says and my heart drops to my feet. I can almost hear my brother screaming at me to stay. I turn away but her words stop me. “Only if you can tell me how to make myself stop loving you.”
I spin back around to her to find her watching me with tears running down her face. “Because right now I don’t think I can,” she finishes.
I rush to her and pull her out of her seat. As I hold her to my chest, I kiss her like I’m starving for her, and I think I am. I kiss her like those five weeks without her have been hell, and they were. The salt from her tears mixes with her kiss.
“I love you, Malia. With everything in me, I love you so much,” I whisper those words against her wet lips.
“I love you too, Lucien.”
While kissing her again, I run my hands over her curves hungrily, not able to think of where I need her most. I push her up against her desk. She takes a seat, opening her legs for me.
After pulling her shirt over her head, I toss it to the floor and move to undo her bra. I get rid of that fabric too and cup a breast in each hand, bringing them up to my mouth. I twirl my tongue around each pert nipple. Malia tosses her head back and moans.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she cries. “I’ve ached so bad for you.”
She buries her fingers in my hair. I can barely contain myself, I want to be in her so bad, but I don’t want to rush. So, I unbutton her pants then slide them off along with her panties. I step back to admire her beautiful body. My heart is pumping and I feel light-headed with need.
After I pull up her desk chair, I sit down and place her feet on either side of the chair arms. From this view, I can see straight to her wet sex.
“Touch yourself, baby. Show me how much you’ve missed me.”
She whimpers at my request but spreads her knees wider as she tentatively sticks two fingers in her mouth, then slowly moves down her body toward the apex of her thighs. My eyes are glued to her fingers as they push inside her wet folds. My cock jumps inside my pants, fighting to get out and replace her fingers. I squeeze myself through the fabric.
Her head falls back as she starts to move her fingers faster. I lick my lips, remembering her taste on my tongue. She pulls her soaking wet fingers out and runs them through her pussy lips.
The action makes a creamy sound. I have to pull my dick out. Holding my hardened member in my hand, I squeeze the head and smear the precum down my shaft.
“Ugh, I need you so bad,” Malia moans as she licks her lips.
“Open up that pretty pussy so I can see how wet you are for me?” She places her fingers on the outside of her opening and spreads herself for me, her wet, pink center is on display.
Leaning forward in my seat, her scent is more prominent. I inhale her sweet musk.
“Keep it open for me, baby,” I say as I slowly insert my longest finger.
She moans and creams around me. I watch as her core sucks in my finger. It comes out covered in her
juices.
“You want my dick in this tight little pussy, Malia?”
“Yes,” she purrs.
“Are you sure, baby?”
“Please,” she says the magic word.
I get up as quick as possible, knocking the desk chair over in my haste. Placing her thighs over my arms, I slide right in. She screams at the sudden intrusion. I swear, it’s gotten tighter since last time, or maybe my memory just doesn’t do it justice.
I work my hips to erase the time we’ve spent apart, diving in and out of her with precision. She claws at the desk beneath her as my dick works her over and over. Her orgasm is rising.
I release her legs. Sinking my fingers into her hair, I hold her head back and kiss her as I grind slow and deep in her depths. When she comes, her walls tighten around me.
She rips her mouth from mine and screams my name. I can’t hold on any longer, I grunt my release, bathing her walls in my seed until I have nothing left to give.
Chapter 45
I Can’t
Malia
* * *
I roll over to Lucien’s side of the bed and come up empty. Checking the clock, it’s four in the morning. That isn’t uncommon. I bet if I listen hard enough, I’ll hear the shower running in the bathroom down the hall. I fall onto my back and smile.
How I missed this during the five weeks he was gone. Thank God for my Grams and Emory during that time because I don’t think I could have made it without them.
I knew I was falling for Lucien, and if I’d put more thought into it sooner, I would have known I was already in love with him. However, watching him walk out of my hospital room made it abundantly clear. I’m in love with this man, in a way I have never been with anyone before.
During and after my divorce, I spent so many nights crying and doubting myself. I remember thinking… would I ever be happy again? The day Emory walked into my life, I found happiness. There is no love like the love between mother and child, no matter if the child came from you or not.